Machine for operating upon the soles of boots or shoes



Feb. 19, 1929.

J. SLATER MACHINE FOR OPERATING UPON THE SOLES 0F BOOTS 0R SHOES Filed y 16, 1925 Patented Feb. 19, 1929.

UNITED STATES PATENT. OFFICE.

JOSEPH SLATER, OF KETTERING, ENGLAND, ASSIGNOR TO UNITED SHOE MACHINERY CORPORATION, OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

MACHINE FOR OPERATING UPON THE SOLES OF BOOTS OR SHOES.

Application filed. May 16, 1925, Serial No. 30,744, and in Great Britain May 23, 1924.

This invention relates to machines for channeling or both channeling and trimming the soles of boots or shoes and is herein illustrated as embodied in a rounding and channeling machine of the type disclosed in United States Letters Patent No. 1,a63,823, granted August 7, 1923, in the names of Johnson, Peterson and Popp.

Machines of the type referred to are particularly designed for operating upon the soles of welt shoes and to this end they are provided with a crease guide and a welt guide for engaging respectively within the welt crease and around the margin of the welt of a shoe to guide the shoe while it is being operated upon. Such machines are further provided with co-operating workgripping members which are moved to and fr m each other and back-and-forth along the line of feed to impart a step-bystep feed movement to the work, and the rounding or trimmingknife is relied upon to hold the work in successive positions to which it has been advanced by the feeding members while the said members make their return movements and while the channeling knife moves through its cutting stroke. Machines thus organized are not adapted to operate upon soles for McKay shoes because in such shoes there is no welt or its equivalent to be engaged by the welt guide and further, for the reason that at the time the channeling and trimming operations are to be performed there is no definite crease between the upper and the welt with which the crease guide may effectively co-operate for the purpose of guiding the shoe. Furthermore a McKay sole, when tacked to the last bottom. prior to channeling and sewing, usually needs to be trimmed in some parts while the sole is in other places so narrow as to require no trimming.- In other instances the shape and dimensions of McKay soles are such that no trimming whatever is required durin the channeling operation. \Vherever no trimming is required, the trimming knife of a rounding and channeling machine of the type above referred to, will not enter the work and consequently will not hold the work. against displacement during the periods When it is released by the feeding members and while the channel knife is moving hackwardly to make its out With the foregoing in mind, one object of the present invention is to improve the construetion and mode of operation of channeling or channeling and trimming machines for the purpose of adapting them for opera tions upon soles which have been temporarily-secured in place upon McKay shoes as, for example, during the process of repairing such shoes.

To the accomplishment of this object, one feature of the present invention consists in the provision, in a sole-trimming machine, of means for trimming the edge of the sole lasted shoe, and a' stationary work guide shaped and arranged to engage the upper of the shoe at a substantial hei ht above the projecting margin of the sole of the shoe and to afford an extended bearing for the upper to locate the sole with respect to the trimming means as the shoe is moved past the work guide. In the embodiment of the invention herein illustratively shown as a rounding and channeling machine, means is provided for feeding a sole step-by-step past the rounding and channeling knives and means is also provided for holding the WOIk during the intervals between the feed "movements. The illustrated work-reta ning means functions independently of the rounding knife and comprises a fixed grippermember, and a movable gripper memher which co-op'erateat each upward or cutting stroke of the rounding knife, firmly to grip the margin of the soleof' a shoe at a ment is further such that as the rounding knife approaches the limit of its downward or non-cutting stroke and the feed members are ready to impart another feed movement to the work, the movable gripper or workretaining member is withdrawn from holding engagement with the work so as not to interfere with the feed thereof.

The invention further consists in the features of construction and in the combinawhich will be obvious to those skilled in the such that the work guide is adapted to con art from the following description, re'ierform substantially to the bulging contour ence being had to the accompanying drawor the lower portion or" the upper of a shoe, ings, in which as shown at 28. The work guide is pro- 1 a view, partially side elevavided with shank portion which is tion and partially in section, of so much angularly disposed witii respectto the of a rounding and channeling machine as is necessary to illustrate the application of the present invention thereto; and

Fig. 2 is a detail side elevational view of the work guide and certain of the operative parts of the machine, illustrating the relation of the latter to the sole of a shoe which is being fed through the machine.

In the drawings, the invention illustrated embodied in a rounding and channeling machine having, the same general construction as that shown and described in Letters Patent No. 1,sl63,823, herein-bet'ore referred to. As shown in 1, the illustrated machine is provided with cooperating work feeding devices comprising an oscillatory work supporting block or table 4 and a teed foot 6; and with operating instrumentalities con'iprising a channel knife 8 and a trimming or rounding knife 10; all of which are constructed, arranged. and operated as fully described in said patent. lhe above-mentioned parts are mounted upon a head or frame 12, to which is secured an adjustable block 14;, and the illustrated machine is also provided with a fixed horizontal plate or support 16 which takes the place of the welt edge gage ot the machine shown in said patent. The plate 16 is arranged to overlie the upper surface of the projecting margin of the sole of a shoe which is being operated upon and it is provided with a cutting block 18 oi soft material which is embedded in the lower side ofthe plate and with which the roundingknife 10 is arranged to co-operate.

In a McKa shoe, such as that shown at 20' in Fig. l, the outer sole 22 is merely secured tenuporarily at one or two points to the insole in preparation tor the channeling, roi'inding and sewing operaliens and as a result the outer sole and the u per are liable to gape apart, or at least they can easily be forced court by a crease guide of the type ordinarily en'iployed in a rounding and channeling m'achine tor guiding the work. Consequently, to adaptinachines oi the class herein referred to for operation upon McKay shoes it is desirable to provide a work guide which is incapable of lo'cing' its way between the upper and the sole of the shoebut which will be eltective to guide the work. To this end, and as illustratively shown in Fig, 1, there is employed a work guide 26 of novel construction, the guide having a worlee gg'ag- .ing portion which is arched about a horizontal axis extending parallel to the direction'ot feed of the shoe, the curvature being we k-engaging portion of the guide and which is secured by means of one or more screws 32 to the adjustable block 1 the forward eii'trcn'iity of the block 1% being cut away and beveled as shown to enable the work guide to be located in the desired relation to the shoe. The curved workengaging portion of the work guide 26 extends a substantial distance above the projecting mar in of the sole and is of sutlicient height and width to afford a hearing surface of substantial are for the side otthe shoe upper. As best sliown in Fig. 2, the work guide 26 is slotted at 34c to per mit the passage therethrough oi the feed foot 6 and to provide ample clearance for the latter as it moves back and forth in feeding; the work. It will be plain that the above-t escri'bed improved work guide 26 cannot be forced inwardly between the upper and the sole as might be the case it a guide member in the nature oi the usual crease guide wereemployed. Consequently with a work guide of the illustrated construction there is no danger that the work will fail to be properly guided with respect to the channeling and rounding knives. As hereinbetore set forth the soles of McKay shoes may require no rounding or trin'nning at all, or they may require rounding or trimming only at one or more portions of their margins in the illustrated machine, the rounding knife will not be projected into the material of the sole at those portions of the sole which do not need to be rounded and consequently will not be cii'cctive to hold the sole stationary between successive teed movements thereot s--; as to support the sole against the thrust of the channel knife.

in the illur' a ed macl'iine is provided for holding the work independently oi? the action of the rounding knife between the feed movements of the work 1d thus to insure that the channeling; operation will eli'ectively be. perormed in the sole oi a lilcl lay along such. portions oi the sole mar n wr there is no surplus material to be trimmed oil by the roundin' li"'l'e. 'lhis result "shed by the pi' oi work-retail con'i n ising able gripper member 235 whicl to co-operate with the tired plate or member it; to grip or clamp the sole The movable ipper me i in the term oi a plunger winch is recei er slidi movement in an axial iterverti cal knife 10. As shown in Fig. 2 the movable gripper member has a width, considered along the line of feed of the work, corresponding to that of the rounding knife and it is located between the rounding knife and the work supporting table at and closely adjacent to the vertical plane of the cutting edge of the rounding knife. The gripper member 36 is thus arranged to engage the sole margin at a point just inwrdiy of where the sole margin is engaged by the rounding knife if there is any surplus ma terial to be trimmed oil. It will be plain therefore that if there no material to be trimmed by the rounding knife the gripper member 36 will engage the sole substantially at the very edge thereof and will serve, in conjunction with the fixed gripper member 16, to exercise the normal work .holding function of the rounding knife during intervals between the feed movements of the w rk, it being apparent that the rounding knife cannot perform any work holding function in where it does not actually enter the work.

To enable the worloretaining device to function above described, the movable gripper member 36 is yieldinglyurged upwardly by means of a coi'npression spring d2 which is confined between the lower end of said member and the bottom of the recess in the slide bar or rounding knife carrier 40. As shown, hie ugward move rent of the gripper member under the influenc of the spring 4:2 is limited by engagement of a shoulder 4 1 on said member with the lower extremity of the rounding knife 10 to such an extent that the work-engaging face of the gripper member 36 is always spaced below the cutting edge of the rounding knife by a distance soi'newhat less than the thick ness of a sole. This construction insures that the sole will. always be clam Jed by the worlr-irta'rining niea s before the completion of the cutting stroke of the rounding knife and that the work reta ning means will be operated to release the work at each noncutting SIIUIIQ of the lOlUIdiilg knife.

In tl e operation of the illustrated nun,

' vented from traveling back with the channel knife.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a sole-trimming machine, means for trimming the edge of the sole of a lasted shoe, and astationary work guide shaped and arranged to engage the upper of the shoe at a substantial height above the projecting margin of the sole and to afford an extended bearing surface for the upper to locate the sole with respect to the trimming.

height above the sole of the shoe and curved to conform substantially to the lengthwise curvature of the upper of the shoe.

i. In a rounding and channeling machine, a frame, means for feeding a shoe mounted on a last, and a work guide having a surface curved to conform to the contour of a substantial area of the upper of the shoe, and a shank portion rigidly secured to said frame.

' 5. In a rounding and channeling machine, the combination with a feed foot .1 r engaging the upper surface of the projecting margin of a sole of a shoe, of a work guide arran 'ed to engage the upper of the shoe throughout an area of substantialsize and extending a substantial distance above the crease between the upper and the sole and having a slot through which the feed foot is arranged to operate to feed the shoe.

(3. In a sole trimming machine, the C0211- bination with an intermittently operative trimming knife, of a cutting block arranged to co-operate with said kni e in trimming the sole edge, means for feeding the work stepby-step past the knife, and work-retaining means operative to hold the work while the trimming and fffifil'llllg means are inactive.

7. In a sole trimmiiw machine, in combination, an intermittrmtiy operable trimming knife, a cutting block arranged to co-opcrate with said knife to trim a sole, means operable between successive operations of the trimming knife for feeding the shoe through the machine, and cooperating clamping devices immovable in the direction of work feed for grippin the sole margin to hold the shoe during the intervals between the feed movements.

8. In a sole rounding'inachine, in combi nation, a rounding knife, a cutting block lll) arranged to co-opcr'ete With said knife to the ll" do CREEPY 9. -11? rounding and co 7 c the combination with mt roundino' and channeling knives. J n? 1 mechenisn'i ior advancing-g; e shoe step-bystop, and yielding means independent of tire rounding nfe am 'his feed 1 *hsnism for i holding the shoe nhil iO channeling i-nlie 1s active.

10. In a machine of the cnss described, in

iccessive feed move trimming the s V, o

members other in the line of work ed and arra iged to solo at a point chse of the cutting edge of the trii hold the shoe StLLilOlliEl'Y et in-(l a;

feed move nen thewzoi, ca ried by one of said WOT bers for cooperating v/i knife.

11. In a machine of the class de cribed, in combination, means for impartin cessive feed movements to o shoe, me: 1- 1 upon the sole oil the shoe he c-reteining' memoh the trimming onerstin success ve 'ieed movemen 's thereof, a I

ripper member one side 01 the projecting; mar r 01. 1e sole, and movsb e grippe' member "for engaging; th opposite side of the n "in of the seie and (to-operating with the d gripper memher to hold ti o worlonnry While it being acted upon by operatii means.

12. In :1 machine oi? the class described, in e )mbinetion, means for imparting a: st pfeed; movement to 1 shoe, me

. we 1 mi 1. H opeisti on tiieioie o; l b

e H Gala a movsbl e lit-cod g rl \VllllC it 15 her 11;); the prior 1 Lib,

ppo

"no ene 13. In a mac in combination,

eessive teed movements operating upon the inmsrtm to e e-anoe, meen:

said reed movemei is, e er for engsgn 3: one s1 margin of the sole 21 her movable tov. grilper member for one mesevo ed for slitting movem o with n the round mg carrier for engaging the margin the sole to hold the shoe stationery be- ;an-ces ive feed movements thereof.

In n'ieehine of the class described, combination, means for in'ipzirting sucfeed movements to a shoe, recipcarrier movable toward and from of the she, a roiianding knife on said carrier, 1nesns":or recipthe carrier to operate the roundknife during the intervals between the feed movements of the shoe, including a springpressed gripper eidsbly mounted 'Within the hie carrier for engagement with of the sole of the shoe to hold nary between successive teed d means on said gripper -engeged by the rounding ",e non-cutti g stroke of the urpose of releasing the hold mining device noon the sole IL :1 nschine of the clsss 1: .bination, means for jPQPZYWDg succea we feed movements to a e recip- TOL'ZZElnfj; cmrier movable 'iOWZLlCi and from the r of e shoe, :1 rounding; knife 1 means for recipro operate the rounding v2.15 between the sucof the shoe, means for with the sole of. i i 7 said 51 *npe'ziii-ember mm 7 went with. the sol-e, and :1 shoes or on said with the inent oi nco of 1' member he 1' needstrohe of men whereof I have signed my is specification.

Josnrn stirrer. 

